Bow hunting is one of mans' oldest arts and has benefited over time from technological improvements towards the fundamental equipment namely the bow and arrow, including various parts and materials therefor. Regarding the arrow, stone points have replaced bare wood. Metal points and metal broad heads replaced the stone points. Countless alterations have been made toward these and other fundamentals.
The hunting of big game, e.g., deer, elk, etc., with bows and arrows is becoming a popular activity in the United States. In fact, many states have special archery seasons during which hunting with a firearm is prohibited. While improvements in bows and arrows have made the average bow hunter more proficient in inflicting a fatal wound, harvesting big game, such as deer, elk, etc., with a bow and arrow is still less efficient than with a firearm. Many large caliber bullets are designed to wreak havoc on tissues and organs due to terminal ballistic characteristics designed thereinto. Such is not the case with arrowheads. A problem that often arises with bow hunting concerns the tracking and locating of a wounded or “hit” animal for harvesting.
Once a big game animal is hit by an arrow, it may run a considerable distance prior to incapacitation and collapse. A hunter desiring to harvest the animal is thus required to track the animal, typically by following a trail of blood on the ground left by the running animal. At times, such a trial may become sparse and difficult to follow, and may merely consist of a drop of a blood every so many feet or yards. While a hunter hunting with snow on the ground may follow the tracks of the animal should the blood trail run dry, tracking an animal in this manner often proves extremely difficult when there is no snow on the ground. Even with snow on the ground, such tracking is difficult as tracks from other animals are typically dispersed over the ground surface.
Various prior art attempts have been made toward aiding in blood flow by means of mechanical improvements for the broadhead and/or the arrow. U.S. Pat. No. 6,705,808 issued to Kane teaches an arrow shaft with a plurality of holes and channels for the purpose of allowing less restricted blood flow. One problem with this arrow is that it does not address the capacity of blood to clot around the entry wound. Also, this type arrow would be expensive to make and would diminish the tensile strength of the arrow. Another problem with a device of this nature is that typically the arrow will, due to the very high velocity of modern bows, exit the animal rendering this capacity irrelevant.
U.S. Pat. No. 4,380,340 issued to Simo teaches a bleeder attachment for arrows in which a bulbous addition to the standard arrow is disclosed in which a plurality of forward facing barbs are present. And while this type device could inflict a more serious wound, it would also negatively affect the flight characteristics of the arrow while in flight in the form of added drag. Also this type device would not affect the ability of the blood to clot around the wound opening. The barbs associated with this device would also hinder tissue penetration.
U.S. Pat. No. 3,066,940 issued to De Lonais teaches an arrow capable of injecting a tranquilizer into the target animal. Again this type arrow would be expensive to manufacture and would provide a danger to the consumer of meat in which animal tranquilizer might still be present, active and dangerous.